


Broken Strings

by wilbruh



Series: Little Bird. [1]
Category: DreamSMP, Minecraft (Video Game), Video Blogging RPF
Genre: :(, Again, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Happy Ending, How Do I Tag, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Kinda, Kinda..., No Fluff, Platonic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Suicide Attempt, Wings, anyway uh not sorry, i wrote some of this while drunk, its ok tho, kinda rushed ending, sorry about that
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-26
Updated: 2020-12-26
Packaged: 2021-03-11 02:13:52
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,581
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28327353
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wilbruh/pseuds/wilbruh
Summary: The bastard takes his shit, burns it in a hole and fucking leaves. Leaving Tommy alone with his ghost of a brother and the echoes of pain that didn’t belong to him.--Or, Tommy in exile, but with a broken soulmate bond.
Relationships: Clay | Dream & TommyInnit (Video Blogging RPF), No Romantic Relationship(s), Toby Smith | Tubbo & TommyInnit, Wilbur Soot & TommyInnit
Series: Little Bird. [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2074560
Comments: 14
Kudos: 555





	Broken Strings

**Author's Note:**

> please note that this is platonic.
> 
> i dont understand how to tag on ao3 and ive been using this website for about three years. what the fuck.
> 
> this is based on a soulmate/hybrid au i got. all u need to know for now is that soulmate bonds exist and that they can be broken (and fixed but? spoilers i guess depending on how the dsmp storyline goes)

He could feel the exact moment the soul bond broke.

He wasn’t completely there after the searing pain flooded his senses. His arm throbbed and he  _ knew  _ Tubbo could feel it too, the pain,  _ the pain,  _ was so much and it was too much and he was so  _ tired  _ \- he didn’t really register when he was dragged away, when Dream shoved him into a boat hard enough to bruise.  _ Did Tubbo feel that? Would Tubbo get a matching one? He didn’t know, didn’t want to think about it, didn’t want to think about anything at all. _

The feathers in his wings were fluffing up, the way they did when he was threatened or upset. It didn’t seem like anyone noticed. He surely didn’t.

He didn’t even register Tubbo’s words, everything after  _ “I’m sorry Tommy”  _ a faint buzz in his ear amongst the static. He had no clue what his best friend (his brother in everything but blood, his  _ soulmate _ ) had said as their final goodbye.

He did however register his brother floating along behind their boat, happily chattering with Dream as they went to wherever the fuck the green bastard was taking him. He registered the coat that was placed around his shoulders and wings, knowing that his shell of a brother did so to ground him rather than keep him warm.

Tommy rubbed his arm, rubbed the gray (it was gray now, the green was gone, Tubbo was  _ gone _ ) mark on his wrist. What the fuck. He went from messing with George like the good old days when he first joined (Gods, remembering messing with Dream and the Dream Team with Tubbo  _ hurt  _ so much why did it  _ hurt _ ) to suddenly being kicked out of the home he helped build from the ground up, the home he fought for twice. 

He glanced over at Wilbur, the ghost still going off about something, in his siren form rather than his human one. The faded soulmark stark against his dark tail. Niki’s soulmark.

Tommy remembered asking Niki about the bond, after Will had died, what it felt like. How Wilbur being a ghost affected it.

_ “Well, it's strange. Our bond never broke. I don’t think bonds break when you die,” The nymph told him “Instead it just feels like the bond is tugging at something that doesn’t exist anymore. I felt empty and lost and I couldn’t feel him anymore. I still can’t, not to the same extent as I could when he was alive, but now that he’s back our bond is still there. Still strong.” She ruffled his hair and smiled at him. “Why do you ask?” _

_ He returned her smile. “No reason, just wondering.” _

_ Tommy ignored the throbbing in his mark, the mark that was fading as Tubbo slowly drifted away, too busy with his presidential duties. Too busy for Tommy. _

He remembered asking Wilbur about his broken bond ages ago, when they first arrived in the DSMP. All his older brother had told him was that it was the worst feeling in the world, one he wouldn’t wish on anyone. The emptiness, the hole in your heart, the other half of you missing. Tommy didn’t understand, but he memorized every word and the look on his brother’s face.

Tommy thinks he understands now.

There is no more fire left in him.

Dream leaves him stranded near a village. The bastard takes his shit, burns it in a hole and fucking leaves. Leaving Tommy alone with his ghost of a brother and the echoes of pain that didn’t belong to him.

He spends every waking moment focusing on getting new materials, new weapons, new armor. His brother flitted dutifully around him, warning him of any mobs and monsters nearby and made the area as pleasant to look at as possible.

It’s not enough.

He felt so off. He wanted Tubbo, he wanted to be curled in his bed, or sitting on his bench listening to his discs.

_ “The discs aren’t important anymore” _

Thinking about Tubbo made his heart hurt. It felt like Tubbo was gone forever.

Tommy mourned his best friend. He set up a small little grave, where he would sit and just  _ talk  _ and listen to music, like he used to with Tubbo. Logically, he knew that his soul mate wasn’t dead, his communicator would have said so, but it just felt right. Having a small spot to remind him of what he once had was comforting in a way. (He didn’t know that hundreds and hundreds of blocks away his best friend did the same.)

Standing on a ledge in the Nether, waiting for his brother and his friends(?) to return from seeing the christmas tree in L’manberg, he wondered if Tubbo would still get any burns on his skin if he just fell in. Tommy still found new small scars appear, or bruises, in places he knows he did not get hurt. He knows he is not fully there, that days and moments pass by in the blink of an eye without him noticing, but he was always hyper aware of every time he got hurt, mapping every scar and injury. He knew that he was still getting  _ some  _ feedback from Tubbo through the connection, and wondered what the fuck his soul mate was getting up to.  _ Who the fuck he was fighting. _

Dream finally dragged him from the ledge, and back to exile he went.

He never got the chance to answer his own question.

No one showed up to his beach party. He expected that.

Wilbur left him for a few days. He wasn’t sure where his brother went. He didn’t really have it in him to care. (Tommy refuses to admit he sat in his tent and cried for his brother. That definitely did not happen.)

When Will returned, smiling wide and clutching a special package in his arms, Tommy almost cried tears of joy (for the first time in a long time). The siren hadn’t left him alone, not for long anyway and Tommy doesn’t know if he has ever felt that happy. (Maybe a lifetime ago, but he really doesn’t know.)

He clutched to the compass like it was his lifeline, grateful that Dream never mentioned it, never made him throw it in a pit too. He said something, offhandedly, about Tubbo losing his own compass rather carelessly. (He broke down at the way Dream said it so casually, as though it was an obvious thing that Tubbo would do. Tommy prayed with any and every ounce of faith he had left that what the demon said wasn’t true.)

Tommy hated Dream. Hated how this man was his only friend. 

His wings were overgrown, weighing him down when he tried to fly. Tommy didn’t mind, there was no one around to help him preen them (Wilbur had never been good at it, he had always pulled too many feathers. Phil or Tubbo helped him when the feathers needed to be pulled.) and it wasn’t like he was going to be flying anywhere any time soon.

Sometimes he wished he could just walk into the ocean and let the water soak into his wings and drag him down.

The final straw for Tommy was when Dream found his secret room, the room filled with all his best tools and armour and weapons, waiting for use. Dream tossed TNT into the hole, and screamed at Tommy.

Tommy snapped. Or, something inside of him snapped. Once Dream left him alone in the ruins of what he now called home, he decided it was time. Tommy used whatever materials he could to build a tower high enough to kill him, whether he landed in the water or not.

He sat at the top, his legs over the and his wings spread, the wind blowing through his feathers. This was the last time he was ever going to feel the wind in his wings, he mused. Might as well enjoy it.

He stared at the compass in his hand, still strung around his neck. The compass pointed to L’manberg, to his Tubbo. He hoped that however he landed wouldn’t harm his soulmate.

\---

He jolted to reality.

One leg poised to jump, his wings tucked in to keep him from catching himself midair.

What the fuck was he doing.

This was the most selfish fucking thing he could be doing, to himself and the god damn country that kicked him out. He would be proving Dream right, proving  _ Tubbo  _ right.

He refused to be selfish.

He kept his hand on his compass and he stepped off, snapping his wings out and gliding to the ground.

He salvaged what he could from the ruins of Logsteadshire, packing a bag. After finding Wilbur’s coat, the same coat he had shoved in the bottom of a thankfully not blown up chest once he arrived in this dreadful place, and slicing some holes in the back for his wings, he felt ready.

Fuck Dream. Fuck Tubbo. He didn’t need them. He was going to survive on his own, without the help of those who claimed to be his friends.

It was time to leave.

(If he kept the compass with him, that was his business. If he found himself at his eldest brother’s house, and ultimately deciding to stay after getting caught, that was also his business. No one needed to know.)

He was proclaimed dead hours later, when Dream came by only to find him missing.

He was free.

**Author's Note:**

> i have so much more waiting to be written for this au! i am so excited!
> 
> stay tuned!


End file.
